Skip to main content

NOPE · AI and people

AI incidents

Reports of AI-related harm and adverse experiences affecting people’s safety, wellbeing, rights and livelihoods. Explore what happened and the evidence available.

NOPE’s core concern is when AI communicates with a person, acts on their behalf, or depicts or impersonates them. The tracker also records consequential decisions, claims and privacy harms involving AI. Each case needs a described connection between AI use and the harm, including private information recorded into or disclosed to an AI service. Each account is reviewed for publication; claims may remain uncorroborated or disputed. How we review and count cases

In this selection

Published cases
30
Countries with reported events
14
Located 28 of 30 cases · 2 unknown
Languages in checked sources
12
Recorded for 30 of 30 cases

1 case has no reviewed AI-to-person relation yet: 1 not yet reviewed and 0 reviewed as unknown. Show these cases

These figures describe the cases collected by NOPE. Coverage varies with discovery, reporting and available evidence. They do not estimate how often AI-related harm occurs.

Response counts currently use each case’s principal recorded outcome. Further proceedings may be described in its account.

Cases in this selection, counted once in their first known event year. A series may continue beyond that year. Reporting and collection dates are excluded. NOPE has searched recent events more thoroughly than earlier years, so bar heights also reflect collection effort.

Reported severity CriticalHighMedium
More filters: AI relation, use, setting, sources and responses
Clear filters

30 of 613 published cases · page 1 of 2

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified video tool

Lake County sheriff says an Illinois man used an online AI service to make sexual videos of a child relative and her mother from photos; charges filed

The Lake County Sheriff's Office in Illinois says that on 25 March 2026 a man from unincorporated Antioch told deputies a stranger had handed him a phone containing sexual videos of a young child he identified as a relative, and that he later admitted the story was fabricated. According to the sheriff's office, investigators found that he had taken photographs of the child and the child's mother and used an online service to generate sexually explicit videos from those images, including videos depicting the child, and a forensic analysis of his phone found further AI-generated videos exploiting the child and her mother. He was charged on 1 April 2026 with five counts of producing child pornography and is detained awaiting trial; the child was taken into protective custody. The service is not named, and the charges are allegations.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 11/10/2026

Aug 2026ChinaUnidentified symptom-analysis tool

Zhejiang toddler hospitalised with pneumonia after his mother relied on an AI app's asthma diagnosis and declined a chest X-ray (hospital account)

A Guangming Daily feature on AI symptom-checking, republished by Bingtuan Daily on Sina Finance on 8 October 2026, recounts a case from August 2026 in Zhejiang and closes it with a quotation from the head of paediatrics at a provincial hospital, who says the family did not heed her advice. A three-year-old boy with a history of asthma was brought in; his mother had entered keywords such as allergy, asthma, cough and night-time wheezing into an AI application, which quickly returned a diagnosis of an acute bronchial asthma attack. On that basis, the account says, she declined the chest X-ray the doctor recommended and insisted on taking home only nebuliser medication. Two days later the child's condition worsened with rapid breathing; on an overnight return to the hospital, examination found extensive inflammatory lesions in both lungs, and he was diagnosed with human metapneumovirus pneumonia with a superimposed bacterial infection and admitted as an emergency. The paediatrics head is quoted saying the illness would not have become so severe had the family listened earlier. The AI application is not named, and the account comes from the hospital side as relayed by the newspaper; no statement from the family is reported.

Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 09/10/2026

Event date unknownChinaUnidentified mushroom-identification tool

Wuhan, China: Hubei TV reports a 4-year-old spent three days in intensive care after a family ate wild mushrooms an AI photo check had not flagged as poisonous

A family of three from Wuhan, Hubei province, picked wild mushrooms on a mountain outside the city on a weekend shortly before 25 July 2026, according to a Hubei TV (经视直播) report published on QQ News on 25 July 2026 and relayed by The Paper on 27 July. The report says a parent who claimed years of mushroom-picking experience photographed the mushrooms with a phone so that AI could identify whether they were poisonous; the software gave no toxicity warning, and the family cooked and ate them, letting the daughter eat more. Five to six hours later all three had vomiting and diarrhoea. The report says the family at first declined admission and the child was treated as an outpatient; by the next morning the child's transaminase level had risen from 1.5 times to 10 times normal and she was admitted, then moved to the intensive care unit of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, where, the report says, her liver indices reached 100 times normal and she was treated with blood perfusion and plasma exchange before being out of danger on the third day. The AI software is not named, its output is not reproduced, and the account comes from one broadcaster's report. This is a different family from the June 2026 Wuhan case involving a 9-year-old.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026

Jun 2026ChinaUnidentified mushroom-identification tool

Wuhan, China: reports say a family ate wild mushrooms an AI identification tool called non-poisonous; a 9-year-old was critically ill with amatoxin poisoning

A family from Wuhan, Hubei province, gathered wild mushrooms resembling the edible termite mushroom (jizong) during a mountain outing in June 2026 and, according to a Guangming Online post carried by The Paper on 5 July 2026 and an Asahi Shimbun report of 6 July citing the Changjiang Daily, ran an AI identification tool on them. The tool returned a "non-poisonous" result and the family cooked and ate the mushrooms. All three family members vomited soon after the meal and again before dawn the next day; they were admitted to Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, where the 9-year-old child was moved to the paediatric intensive care unit the same afternoon. The reports say the child had amatoxin poisoning that progressed to the most severe grade, with acute liver failure, hepatic encephalopathy and fluid in the chest and abdomen, and went home after eight days in hospital. The AI tool is not named, its output is not reproduced, and the account comes from one reporting chain.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image and video tool

Greenwood, Indiana: police say a man used AI to remove a teenage girl's clothing from her photographs and a video; child exploitation charge, 30 Sept 2026

Greenwood, Indiana police say a man used artificial intelligence to remove clothing from photographs and a video of a teenage girl he knew, producing nude images of a real minor. According to court documents cited by Fox 59 and relayed by Hoodline, the girl contacted police in March after finding nude images of herself on the man's phone, which investigators say also held nude images of teenage girls and young adult women, including at least two underage girls the man knew personally. Court documents say the man first denied that any images were of underage girls, then said the images of the girl had been altered with AI, and told police he used the AI-generated images to teach the girls a lesson. He was charged with one count of child exploitation, a Level 5 felony, on 30 September 2026. The allegations are untested in court. The account rests on one chain: Fox 59's report of the court documents and the police account, relayed by Hoodline.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 09/10/2026

Event date unknownArgentinaUnidentified image and video tool

Lomas de Zamora, Argentina: families say pupils used AI to turn classmates’ photos into fake nudes that circulated and were sold; two 15-year-olds charged

On 7 October 2026 pupils and families protested outside a private secondary school in Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires province, after families reported that a group of pupils had used artificial intelligence to alter real photographs of female classmates so that they appeared naked, and had circulated the images through social networks and messaging apps. Families told reporters that the images were compiled in a "catalogue" pairing each girl’s original social-media photo with the manipulated version, that some were offered for money on adult sites, and that the girls were traumatised and ashamed. Urgente24 reported that two 15-year-old pupils were charged (imputados) in the juvenile prosecutor’s case, that investigators had identified 45 possible victims while families spoke of about 50, and that, according to information circulating, the school had decided the pupils involved would continue classes online and would not be re-enrolled for 2027; El Destape, by contrast, reported that the school did not plan to sanction or expel them and would hold awareness talks, and El Destape and Código Baires describe the move to online classes as a measure under evaluation. Families also allege the school knew for about a month before telling parents. The allegations have not been tested in court and the AI tool is not identified.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources · Added 08/10/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesDesire AI (reported)

Shawnee, Oklahoma police say a man used an AI app to make child sexual abuse images from photos of local children, one of a neighbour; five felony counts filed

Police in Shawnee, Oklahoma, say a local man used an artificial-intelligence app to create child sexual abuse images from photographs of children in his community, and Pottawatomie County prosecutors have charged him with five felony counts of possessing and creating child pornography. According to News On 6 (28 September 2026), the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children task force was tipped through a national database in August, Shawnee police executed a search warrant, and police say they found more than 200 child sexual abuse images and videos on two phones, about 100 of which appeared to have been created through an AI app. Court documents cited by the outlet say police identified some of the young victims through selfies they had posted on social media, and investigators believe one photo used was of a neighbour, taken from the man's front porch. KFOR reported on 6 October 2026 that court documents say he admitted using an app called "Desire AI", that a juvenile's online selfie was turned into sexually explicit AI images, and that a photo he took of a mother and her two-year-old daughter was altered to make both appear naked. The account rests on the police and OSBI statements and the charging documents as reported; the total number of children depicted is not stated.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 07/10/2026

2 Aug 2020United StatesUnidentified license plate reader

Aurora, Colorado: police held a woman and four children at gunpoint in 2020 after a plate reader matched her SUV to a stolen motorcycle, The Denver Post reports

On 2 August 2020 Aurora police officers stopped an SUV they believed to be stolen, ordered the woman driving it and four children to lie on the ground at gunpoint, and handcuffed two of the children. The Denver Post reported that a license plate reader at an Aurora intersection had alerted police because the SUV had the same plate number as a stolen motorcycle from Montana, and that officers did not check the reading or the vehicle description. Prosecutors declined to charge the officers in January 2021 and called what happened unacceptable and preventable. The department said all officers were repeating training on license plate scanners. Sentinel Colorado reported that the department's system had flagged the SUV, which carried Colorado plates, and that the City of Aurora agreed in February 2024 to a $1.9 million settlement with the woman and the children to resolve a lawsuit over the officers' actions. One officer was suspended for 160 hours. The woman said the stop destroyed her mentally and that one of the children became withdrawn.

Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Settled

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 05/10/2026

Mar 2026CanadaUnidentified image tool

Edmonton: two 14-year-old junior high students charged with making and possessing child sexual exploitation materials and voyeurism after police allege they used AI software to sexualise photos of female classmates taken at school without consent and from social media

The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation unit announced on 17 June 2026 that two 14-year-old boys at an Edmonton junior high school had been charged on 1 June with making and possessing child sexual exploitation materials and voyeurism. Police allege the boys took photos of girls at their school without consent and from the girls' social media accounts and used AI software to sexualise them; several students were identified as victims and police said the number could be more than ten pending forensic review. A teacher reported the matter to police in late March 2026 after students complained. Police said the evidence so far indicates the images were shared between the two boys rather than more widely, but that word of their existence spread through the school. The lead investigator said the girls were left with intense shame and embarrassment and that some are now too scared to post on social media. The software has not been identified; the school and the accused are not named to protect the victims. CBC, Global News, CTV News and The Canadian Press covered the release and news conference.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 01/10/2026

Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool

Sydney schoolgirls reportedly targeted with deepfake images circulated online

ABC News reports that digitally altered sexual images using the faces of girls from a Sydney high school circulated online. Families went to police, who confirmed an investigation, while the school and education department said they were working with police. A follow-up report says the eSafety Commissioner was also in talks with investigators. The school is not identified, and the number of affected students, creation date and later inquiry outcome are unknown.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool

Girls at a Tasmanian school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images shared in a boys' group chat

Police in Tasmania received a report about alleged illegal online activity involving a group of students at a school in the south of the state, and on 19 March 2026 a local outlet reported that the incident may have involved AI-generated content. On 29 April 2026 the ABC reported, citing Tasmania Police, that girls at the school had their likenesses used to make AI-generated sexual images. Two parents told the ABC that police said 21 girls had been identified as victims, that the AI-altered photos were shared in a boys' group chat and that the images appeared to have been taken from social media. Five boys are alleged to have created the images and have left the school. Tasmania Police said no charges were laid and the five youths were dealt with under the Youth Justice Act. The parents said their daughters felt isolated and unsupported, and the school principal denied that families were advised to withhold information from their children. The creation date and the AI tool are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 30/09/2026

Event date unknownGreeceUnidentified image tool

Two 16-year-old students in Greece reportedly arrested over AI-edited nude or semi-nude images of classmates

On 21 February 2025 Greek outlets reported a Hellenic Police statement saying two 16-year-old students had been taken in from their school on 19 February 2025. According to the statement, they exchanged online photographs of classmates that they had processed with an AI program so the classmates appeared nude or semi-nude, and the photographs came from social media or were received without consent. A case file was formed against the students for child sexual abuse material and against their parents for neglect of supervision. The number of classmates depicted, the creation date and the outcome are not reported.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownAustraliaUnidentified image tool

Female students at a Victorian secondary school reportedly depicted in AI-generated sexual images circulated online

In a report published on 21 February 2025 about a Victoria Police press conference, an Australian regional outlet stated that sexually explicit AI-manipulated images of teenage girls had been circulated online and that two Year 11 students had been suspended. Police were quoted saying the images allegedly involved formal photos of female students. Police were still working to establish how many students were victims. The Department of Education said wellbeing support had been offered to students who needed it. The creation date, the AI tool, the number of affected students and the outcome of the investigation are not reported in the cited source.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/09/2026

2025MexicoUnidentified image tool

Zacatecas, Mexico: students report AI-altered sexual images of hundreds of classmates at a secondary school

In November 2025 parents and students at a secondary school in the city of Zacatecas blocked a road and occupied the school after reporting that a classmate had altered photos of schoolmates with AI applications and posted them online. Parents estimated about 400 affected students. The state prosecutor's office opened an investigation for crimes against sexual intimacy and reported 46 complaints in an N+ report published 13 November, while saying it had not located the online page or obtained any image and had not determined whether AI or another application was used. The school director and a social worker were separated from their posts after parents said they minimized the reports. Claims about AI use and the number affected are unverified in the inspected reports.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 29/09/2026

12 Sept 2026 to 23 Sept 2026PakistanClaude (reported)

Bahawalpur, Pakistan: a 17-year-old accused of putting methanol in his father's food is arrested after Anthropic reported his Claude chats about the failed poisoning to the FBI, which alerted Pakistan's cybercrime agency; he was later bailed

Pakistan's National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) announced on 23 September 2026 that it had arrested a 17-year-old college student in Bahawalpur for allegedly attempting to poison his father. According to the agency and the First Information Report, the teenager had set up a home laboratory, obtained chemicals from Australia and Islamabad, and once mixed laboratory-grade methanol into his father's food, without effect. The News reports investigators' account that on 12 September he told Anthropic's Claude that his father had 'accidentally' ingested 15 to 20 ml of methanol with food without effect and asked why, that Claude refused to guide him further, and that he then turned to Grok and ChatGPT; the FIR says he sought information about the toxin abrin. Anthropic reported the activity to the FBI, whose information reached the NCCIA through Pakistan's foreign ministry on 22 September. Officers traced the teenager, seized his phone and chemicals, and took him into custody. The News reports that a court later granted him bail after his father forgave him and that he denied any plan. The allegations are untested.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited KingdomUnidentified image tool

Colchester, Essex: a 39-year-old man admitted making indecent images of children after the prosecution said he had used AI on photos taken from social media, including of children as young as nine, to create sexualised images of people known to him; he is due to be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court

The Colchester Gazette (24 September 2026, also carried by other Newsquest titles) reports that a 39-year-old man from Colchester admitted at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image. Police had seized two mobile devices in a raid on his address the previous year, holding nearly 2,000 indecent images of children. The prosecutor said he had created 'deepfake sexually explicit images of people known to the defendant', taking photos from Facebook and other social-media accounts and using AI to create new images; some of the children were as young as 12 and nine and had been edited to look as young as five and six. Magistrates declined jurisdiction and he was bailed to be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on 26 October 2026. The children are not identified and how many real children were depicted is not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 1 source · Added 29/09/2026

Event date unknownUnited StatesUnidentified image tool

Gilmer County, Georgia: a vendor who restocked drink machines in local schools used AI applications to turn ordinary photographs of students into child sexual abuse material; prosecutors identified more than 150 underage victims, he was convicted on 118 counts and sentenced on 2 September 2026 to 40 years in prison, and parents of eight students sued Pepsi entities for keeping him on the school route

According to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case as conflict prosecutor, the investigation began in December 2024 when a Gilmer High School student told a school resource officer that a vendor who refilled drink machines on campus had asked her through a social media app to send him pictures. The Gilmer County Sheriff's Office arrested him in January 2025 and searched his devices, car and home. Prosecutors say he downloaded photographs of minors from social media and used AI applications and bots to alter them so the children appeared nude or engaged in sexual activity, and that the material related to more than 150 underage victims in Georgia and other states, many of them Gilmer County students. A Cobb County senior judge found him guilty on 13 August 2026 of 118 counts of sexual exploitation of children and on 2 September 2026, after 19 victim impact statements, sentenced him to 60 years with 40 to serve in prison. Separately, the parents of eight female students aged 12 to 17 sued him, Pepsi Beverage Co. and Pepsi-Cola Sales and Distribution in a suit reported on 28 February 2025, alleging the companies reinstated him to the same school route after students complained that he was photographing them; USA Herald reported the negligence suit again on 26 September 2026 and said Pepsi had not yet responded publicly. The AI tools are not named and the court and status of the civil suit are not reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 8 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 27/09/2026

Event date unknownIndiaUnidentified video tool

Family alleges AI sexual-video abuse and online impersonation of a student in India

A family in India alleges that someone impersonated a teenage student online, made a sexual video from her photograph using AI, circulated it and threatened the family. Police opened an investigation. The AI claim comes from the complaint.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 26/09/2026

Aug 2026United StatesUnidentified image tool

Cookeville, Tennessee: two high-school students were charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor after the sheriff's office said they used an AI program to turn photographs, including those of female classmates, into sexually explicit images and posted them; the mother of one depicted girl says her daughter shut herself in her room and stopped talking to friends

On 31 August 2026 the Putnam County Sheriff's Office was told of possible sharing of sexually explicit images at Cookeville High School. Detectives found that two male teenage students had used an artificial-intelligence program to turn photographs obtained online, in some cases photographs of fellow female students, into sexually explicit images, and had shared them; explicit images already stored on one phone were also shared. Both juveniles were taken to the Putnam County Juvenile Detention Center. One was charged with one count each of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, the other with two counts of each. The district attorney told NewsChannel 5 on 21 September that the two would be prosecuted in juvenile court. The mother of one of the depicted girls told the station the episode was very hard on her daughter, who had made no naked photographs herself, locked herself in her room and would not talk to her, to anybody or to her friends. The sheriff's-office account and the school system's statement were carried by WZTV, WSMV and 3B Media News on 1-2 September; NewsChannel 5 added its own interviews with the sheriff, the district attorney and the mother on 21 September. The tool is not named. The juveniles are not named in any report.

Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 22/09/2026

Dec 2025MalaysiaUnidentified image tool

Muar, Johor: three boys were expelled from a Chinese secondary school for using AI to make indecent deepfake images of female classmates; some images spread online and at least two girls lodged police reports

In early December 2025 a Chinese secondary school in Muar, Johor, expelled three male pupils in Forms 2, 3 and 4 after finding they had used AI software to composite several female classmates' faces onto indecent images, some of which had spread online. The school said it was told of the images on Monday 1 December, investigated immediately, met the parents of all pupils involved, expelled the three under its rules with a stated zero-tolerance policy, and urged victims to lodge police reports and parents to delete any such images. The boys' parents accepted the decision. At least two girls lodged police reports; the Muar district police chief confirmed reports had been received, that the boys had been summoned to assist the investigation, and that an investigation was under way. No charge or later outcome has been reported.

Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened

AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/09/2026

Cases may have several effects and sources. Mixed accounts qualify when they include a reported harm or adverse experience. People are counted within individual cases where sources support a number; we do not publish a collection-wide total of distinct people.

A source’s existence, the experience it reports and AI’s causal role are separate questions. A lawsuit records allegations unless a subsequent finding establishes them.

Methodology and corrections · Subscribe via RSS · Suggest a case or correction · Find support

Last dataset update: 11/10/2026. Dataset available under CC BY 4.0.